Official Truths in a War on Fake News: Governmental Fact-Checking in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand
Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: This article analyses the practice of state-operated fact-checking websites in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. It is the first empirical study of governmental news corrections in Southeast Asia and covers more than 2,700 official posts published by Malaysia’s Sebenarnya.my, Singapore’s Factually, and Thailand’s Anti-Fake News Center. It finds that correction practices across the sites mainly function to sustain the salience of a supposedly constant and omnipresent fake news threat. Assuming an important role in strategic political communication, official fact checks accompany domestic fake news discourses that prepare the ground for restrictive legislation. At the same time, the analysis did not reveal any propagandistic abuse as the sites refrained from excessively defending governments and accusing political opponents. This finding is qualified regarding Singapore’s Factually that recently changed its approach towards targeting government critics personally.
Author: Lasse Schuldt
Institution: Thammasat University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Funder: Thammasat University
OpenAlex ID: W3172525272